Casualties Speaking

Adam StyborskiTuesday, January 12, 2010

ight before the holiday break it was Goblin Week. Since I'm a devout EDH enthusiast I, naturally, reviewed some of the more entertaining options for using a legendary Goblin as your general. But more importantly, I explained my boggart nature of "borrowing" the most interesting things around me for my own personal use, challenging you to share a themed (Goblin or not) EDH deck.

Shared you did.

EDH is a format of amazing variety with room for everything from tuned, competitive caliber decks through haphazard collections of vaguely related cards thrown together for a deck or two—anything you can imagine for a deck can be done. Take, for example, RavenoftheBlack's first EDH deck:

I've seen a Wort, the Raidmother deck before, and she lends herself to the general approached RavenoftheBlack was going for: make Goblins then make Goblins blow up opponents and such. While Doubling Season and anything that generates tokens is generally considered a combo, it's Wort allowing you to conspire spells like Overrun and Harmonize that makes all those token work when many decks in the format drop big, flying fatties.

And speaking of the flying fatties, Fishduggery cut straight to the point (as posted on the forum) with "why have hamburger when you can have steak!"

While there's nary a Goblin in sight it's probably for a good reason: here be Dragons! Bladewing the Risen will bring back any Dragon permanent each time he enters the battlefield, and with "fun" Dragons like Malfegor and Bogardan Hellkite, dealing with dead Dragons was never so good. And with all the Dragons hanging around to play, Crucible of Fire just puts the icing on the cake.

Changing Gears Doesn't Mean Changing Speed

Dragons weren't the only tribe getting some EDH love. While not everything is perfectly tribal, SetzerG's Lorthos, the Tidemaker deck takes us under the waves to visit with the mighty king of octopuses and all his neighbors:

While there's certainly some of you with a discerning eye questioning the "lack" of "good EDH stuff" there's something to be said for the pure mystery and flavorful cohesiveness of a fully thematic deck. Everything in the deck feels right at home 20,000 leagues under the sea, and Lorthos, in all his majesty, wouldn't have it any other way.

All of these decks, among several others, were posted on the forums. However some of you like to reach out to me using the "Respond via Email" link—I get those emails too! Ryan K. provided a deck that was loaded with Goblins:

As Ryan puts it "[t]he goal is to get lots of Goblins, then power them up"—but there's so much more. Both Clickslither and Voracious Dragon love a tasty Goblin treat, and Patron of the Akki can pump the Goblins who remain on the offensive.

However, there are two things missing from this deck. The first is the 99th card, but the second, presumably related, omission is slightly more important: who is your general, Ryan? I'm sure a few of you on the forums will point out which of the remaining legendary Goblins would best serve as the head of pack.

Several of you didn't send in or post any decks, instead opting just to point out something cool. The most common one I received was a surprising Goblin combo of instant death.

Aside from Goblin shenanigans, one of you pointed out something for one of my EDH decks. IncrediSteve asked if I had ever considered Fallen Ideal for my Kresh the Bloodbraided deck. The answer is "Not until you pointed it out!" My Kresh deck loves free sacrifice outlets, and a sacrifice outlet that pumps Kresh, gives him a little evasion, and returns to my hand when it would otherwise go to the graveyard makes me scratch my head trying to figure out how I missed it. Thanks for the great tip, IncrediSteve!

Torchslingers-R-Us

While I certain catch the messages on the forums and through email, you may not know the third great way to grab my attention: my Twitter account. I really do appreciate everything, both positive and negative, that you have to say. Thanks for those of you who, week to week, always have something to put in—I certainly take notice!

The next two weeks are Worldwake preview weeks. If you've been hungering for a taste of something awesome, this will be the right place to be. See you then!